The Japanese dormouse (Glirulus japonicus) generally occurs in mature natural forests in lower montane to subalipine zones. Tanaka (2010) reported that it inhabited in the conifer plantation in eastern Yamaguchi. Since information on the distribution and ecology of the species in this region is very limited, we investigated its microhabitat selection in the conifer plantation.

Since the species is known to use artificial nest boxes for the daily rest site, we placed 145 nest boxes in the study area of approximately 0.15km². Fifteen boxes were selected randomly and visit of a dormouse to each box was monitored by a sensor camera. We established a circular sampling plot of a size of 5-m radius around a nest box and measured variables related to vegetation and abiotic environment. We generated GLM to test the influence of these predictor variables to the frequency of appearance of dormice as a response variable. Model fitting and selection of variables were evaluated with AIC. All tests were performed using R ver. 2.6.2.

It was suggested by the test that the number of canopy trees and understory trees affected the dormice appearance.